Mass Made to Order

Global Business hears from a man who had a revelation more than 20 years ago when he was working at the giant computer company IBM. Joe Pine realised that each and every customer was different, had different needs and wanted different products and services. The industrial process that dominated business life in the 20th Century, mass production, was no longer enough. Customers wanted things tailor-made for them - or that is what they were going to insist on in the near future. This approach has dominated Joe Pine's life as an influential management consultant for two decades. In Global Business he tells Peter Day how his ideas have developed and what many businesses still have to learn about what their customers really want.